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Leon Wyldwood
Leon Wyldwood is a human male fighter, ex-vice president of the Adventurer's Guild, ex-member of Team 1, and the leader of the terrorist organization the Due Diadem. He is also the grandson of the Guild's founder, Tex Wyldwood. Appearance Personality During his tenure as a vice president, Leon maintained an image of a soft-spoken intellectual whose humility and warmth were equaled only by his dedication to the Guild. However, it later became apparent that this was a carefully crafted charade designed to draw suspicion away from his true, sinister nature. According to Siebold Wilfong, Leon's life very much mirrored his own. While they were both widowers that shoulder the expectations of their families, Siebold remarked that he may have become just as vengeful if his daughter was taken from him. Background Leon was raised by his grandmother in the most affluent district of Jacinto following the early death of both his mother and father during a guild mission. In his loneliness, Leon dreamed of becoming a hero like in the legends of old. In particular, he was taken by the Legend of Iskandar, which he thought mirrored his own life. He joined the guild as soon as he was eligible, where he developed a one-sided rivalry with Case Applewhite, whose natural talent and popularity he was jealous of. He also became a close friend of Sophia Denholm of Sugarland's Team 11, whom he eventually fell in love with and married. Before his leadership in the Guild, Leon was a member of Team 13 along with his fellow teammates, Cordelia, Claire, and Flynn, under the leadership of Mirabeau Zavala, granddaughter of Jacinto founder Faustine Zavala. As a member of Team 13, Leon proved to be one of the Guild's most capable members. While his fellow team members became famous for their flash and displays of power, Leon excelled at espionage, strategy, and intelligence. Leon's bowmanship became the subject of subtle attention when he broke every guild archery record. Enthusiasts have claimed that Leon could loose three arrows in half of a second, shoot four consecutive arrows in a single jump, catch launched arrows mid-air, and even split arrows shot at him in mid-air. Eventually, Team 13 was assigned to a joint operation with Team 11 to venture deep into the Elven Territory to confirm a terrorist threat to the city-state of Karna and the Vespian region. A team of surveyors studying wildlife in the Zavala Valley, near the Vespian city of Fort Baird, was slayed by elven operatives operating under the name Kamuri. Kamuri's apparent goals were written in blood on nearby rockface, outlining their desire to "regain their people's dominance of the Elamdinn and restore their rightful place as the world's caretakers." Leon was vehemently opposed to working with Team 11, fearing for Sophia's safety on such a dangerous mission. Sophia dismissed Leon's objections angrily, attributing his concerns to protectiveness and dislike of her teammate, Case. After reaching the head of the River of the Paulownias, they ventured into an apparent Kamuri hideout, and they were ambushed upon exiting by Kamuri operatives. Unfamiliar to the dense forests of the Elven Territory, they were near helpless against the "shadows of the forest." In their escape, Leon was blindsided by falling rubble. Sophia sprang backwards, pushing Leon to safety but fell victim to a rogue boulder. With the right side of her body crushed and no way to free herself, Sophia accepted her fate and urged the group to leave her. Leon protested in a tearful frenzy, pouring all of his strength into lifting the boulder. In her shrieks of pain, Sophia begged Leon to leave with the others. Eventually, his teammates dragged him away, leaving for Vespia as Sophia was left to die. After returning to Jacinto, tired and wounded, Case regretfully told Leon that Sophia had discovered that she was pregnant just days before. In the following years, Leon was overcome with grief and despair. He became buried in his work, and his previously jovial persona became more quiet and reclusive. Following the passing of Elijah Rockdale, the Guild’s previous president, Leon and the rest of Team 13 were named as their successors, with Cordelia as the Guild’s new president. Cordelia named Leon as her closest advisor and the Guild’s vice president. Leon’s spies eventually intercepted a communique between Kamuri operatives indicating the presence of old Akkadian ruins that were previously thought as only myth. He then devised a plan to claim the fabled Vault of Akkadia as his own, and use the super-weapon Enuma Elish to destroy the Elven nation and rob them of their near-immortal lifespans. He later found sympathizers for his plan, recruiting fellow guild member Blaine Haber, serial killer Agatha Redriver, fanatical archaeologist Ankush Saha, and disgraced scientist Ingram Lasalle. This group, collectively called the Due Diadem, orchestrated Leon’s plan from the shadows while he kept his façade as the Guild’s unassuming vice president. Plot During the Siege of Sugarland, Leon finally revealed himself as the true leader of the Due Diadem. Making use of the fraction of Enuma Elish that he had access to, he called forth a meteor swarm to annihilate what he saw as the only means of his defeat: Enkidu's successor, Erkos Vasco; the only two Grails in existence, Virgil Lasalle and Soledad Wilfong; and the Mindflayer, De Luca Laghari. In his final act, Siebold summoned a prismatic sphere on Team 11 and his daughter using all of his remaining anima, looking over his shoulder and offering them a smile before disappearing into the blinding light of Leon's magic. Leon then travelled to the Arbor Sepulchre, located in the center of the Glasslands, to destroy the last vestige of Ishtar's Chains. In the final confrontation, Leon was defeated by Team 11. As a last act of desperation, Leon invoked the totality of power inside of the Vault of Akkadia, making his body the vessel of Iskandar's sealed spirit. Team 11 once again rallied together at one last stand, and Iskandar was eventually defeated. Although incapacitated, Leon was still a vessel for the vault's near-infinite amount of anima. Cordelia and the rest of Team 1 apprehended Leon, and ten days later, 108 arcane bonds were placed on his body to render him immobile. In an agreement with the Karnan Raja Anil Khan, he was sentenced by the Vespian Confederation to imprisonment for the rest of his days in a newly built cell in the lowest depths of Lake Surya. Before he was gagged with one last seal, he issued a brief, harrowing warning to De Luca Laghari from his cell: "You have yet to find your fate, Mindflayer. But your fate has found you."